Rail passenger fury at 3.2% rise in fares for chaotic services

PASSENGERS reacted with fury yesterday on learning rail fares will rise by 3.2 per cent in January despite months of chaos across much of the network. Season tickets on a widely used and routinely disrupted commuter route - London to Brighton - will rise by £150 to £4,846.

The new timetable in May caused mass disruption and cancellations (Image: GETTY)

The highest rise since 2010 has hit passengers travelling in the West Midlands from Tame Bridge Parkway to Nuneaton whose season tickets will have risen £1,061 between 2010 and next January - 54 per cent.

Mr Grayling's Surrey constituents in Epsom will by January have seen their season tickets to London soar 37 per cent since 2010 to £2,299.

But Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train firms and Network Rail, said: "Fares are underpinning a once-in-a-generation investment plan to improve the railway and politicians effectively determine that season ticket prices should change in line with other day-to-day costs to help fund this.

"While the industry is learning lessons from the recent timetable change, major improvements have been delivered this year from upgraded stations at London Bridge and Liverpool Lime Street to new trains in the South West and Scotland and more will be delivered in the next year."